Final fight: Russia will fight for gold in rhythmic gymnastics and handball on the 16th day of the Olympic Games in Tokyo

On the last day of the Tokyo Olympics, 13 sets of awards will be played.

Usually by this time it is already becoming clear which countries will take the leading positions in the medal standings, but two more intrigues remain unresolved in these competitions - whether the United States will allow China to take first place for the first time since 2008 and whether the Russian national team will remain on the fourth line.

Russian athletes won 20 victories and won 26 silver and 23 bronze medals.

This is the best result since 2008, regardless of how the final day of the Olympics goes.

But he still does not guarantee the fourth place in the overall standings.

The latter is also claimed by the UK, which is only five silver medals behind.

Both countries have good chances for gold on the last day of the competition, so the fight for the final position will continue until the last event.

The main hopes of domestic fans will be associated with rhythmic gymnastics, in which medals will be played in the group all-around.

Russian girls in this form have not given gold to anyone since 2000, and have not been inferior at the world championships since 2015.

Anastasia Bliznyuk will have a chance to become the most successful Olympic "artist" - she already has two gold medals, and any other award will raise her above all other two-time champions.

Anastasia Maksimova and Anastasia Tatareva will have a chance for a second gold in their careers, while Angelina Shkatova and Alisa Tishchenko will have their first fight for the Olympic podium.

However, in the light of recent events, the usual confidence in the victory of Russian gymnasts is no longer there.

Firstly, in qualification they still lost a rather tangible 2,750 points to the Bulgarian girls.

However, you can recall that at the three previous Olympics, the Russians also took second place before the final, and then they nevertheless won awards of the highest dignity.

Secondly, even the head coach of the national team, Irina Viner-Usmanova, expressed doubts about the sixth victory in a row.

She suggested that the judges would try to elevate Bulgaria to the highest step of the podium, and not Russia.

“This is a failure of the Rhythmic Gymnastics Olympics.

I can say that I expect the same tomorrow.

Judging by today, the judges have chosen Bulgaria.

I'm tired of the fact that Russia has been winning gold for 20 years, ”Viner-Usmanova told RT, commenting on the referee scandal that took place in the personal all-around.

By the time the intrigue in rhythmic gymnastics is resolved, the Russian team will have one more chance for gold.

As at the Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Russia and France will meet in the final of the women's handball tournament.

Then Evgeny Trefilov's wards won a landslide victory, but it's hard to say how the team headed by Alexei Alekseev will perform now.

At the group stage, the Russian girls have already met French women and won by one goal. Previous matches were held within the framework of the European championships - in 2018 the teams exchanged victories, and the “tricolors” were stronger in the final game, and two years later a draw was recorded. In general, it is impossible to single out any tendency in the face-to-face confrontation, the result of the Olympic final may turn out to be completely unpredictable.

At the same time, one curious fact should be noted - if one women's handball team won the Olympic Games, then almost always then defended its title. So did the teams of the USSR, South Korea, Denmark (she did have three victories in a row) and Norway. Only Yugoslavia did not respect this tradition, and the Russian national team is unlikely to want to follow her example. Eight girls in Alekseev's squad have already once beaten France in the final and are able to repeat that success.

The Russian Olympic team desperately needs these two gold medals, as the British will have a very realistic chance of winning three victories on the final day. Boxer Lauren Price will try to do it in the weight category up to 75 kg, in which she is the reigning world champion, cyclist Laura Kenny in the omnium, which has already brought her two Olympic titles, and her husband Jason Kenny and Jack Carlin - they still have Keirin remained. British runners will still compete in the men's marathon, but there you can not expect any prizes from them.

The Russians will also perform in the cycle track, but it is difficult to call them contenders for medals. Bronze medalist in Madison Maria Novolodskaya will try to prove herself in the omnium - at the world championships she managed to be in the top five, albeit three years ago. Denis Dmitriev will be eager to improve for fourth place in the sprint, but keirin is not his core discipline.

If we compare all the participants in the Tokyo Olympics, not by the number of victories, but by the total number of medals, then the Russian team has already guaranteed itself the third line. The last time to be in this place was in 2012. The national team already has 69 medals in the piggy bank, to which one more medal from the handball players is guaranteed to be added and, almost certainly, one from the gymnasts. 71 medals at the Summer Olympics is the third result in the country's post-Soviet history. More often it was possible to be on the podium only in 2000 and 2004.